Full-Body Scanner

BODY SCANNERS IN INTERNATIONAL AIRPORTS

An Analysis

The writer seeks to petition the readers for their fair understanding that this material is for academic compliance.  Opinions, possible retaliations, questions, and recommendations raised herein would merely reflect the writer’s current stand regarding the matter.  The same may vary later on as circumstances further develop.   The contents mirror the writer’s maturity, or the lack of it, and his knowledge on the topic is limited as of this writing.  The same is open for progress.

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          The human body is, if not all the time, often regarded as the personal temple of the individual.  This is an ideal upbringing which many citizens of today have undergone in their early stages, one way or another.  Another equally important advocacy in honing a person is his sense of social obligation – giving aid to those who are in peril, subjecting himself for the protection of more.

Are these values compromising each other?  A conflict would not be impossible as there are massive possibilities of interaction as the world gets smaller and smaller through technology.  For someone who is receptive to new ideas, it would not be surprising to know that persons should be on guard all the time because technology will never have its peak.

A full-body scanner is a device that creates an image of a person's nude body through their clothing to look for hidden objects without physically removing their clothes or making physical contact. They are increasingly being deployed at airports and train stations in many countries.  This term as defined and provided for by Wikipedia.com is one of the wonders of present-day technology.

Are citizens of the international community ready for this?  Technology-wise, there is no doubt.  How about moral-wise?

Our laws are not without extensive provisions on privacy be it personal or about property.  The same can be given more gravity on chastity.  Our laws do not bypass, they even highly consider, what is publicly moral.  This question on privacy is of a moral character therefore what is being trespassed is not merely any Constitutional nor Statutory but that of an INHERENT RIGHT.  Inherent rights cannot be waived.

Nudity.  Imagine yourself stripping off to nudity as a protocol.  First, the anxiety.  Second, the possibility of being jeered up, or even abused during the process.  The risks do not stop there.  What if the still pictures leak?  This is being ''spoken of'' by an Asian male person.  Imagine women from Islamis countries?

On the other hand, we often subject ourselves – whatever it takes – to professional touch.  If the doctor says we strip, we do automatically and without hesitations.  Can we feel the same in aviation processes and at ports?  For the protection and betterment of all?

What better way to reconcile this?  The answer, I recommend, should be entrusted to technology just the same.  If full-body scanners can do the impossible of searching behind the clothes of individuals, it would be petty for it to detect the illegal.  No human interventions needed for the unnecessary attention.  Technology must also be the one to troubleshoot the smuggled articles so people, especially women should not be under the eyes of living people.

If not, then they might as well regulate the authorities.  A licensure proceeding for the full-body scanner staff can come in handy.